{"id":3074,"date":"2018-01-31T17:23:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T17:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=3074"},"modified":"2018-01-31T17:23:52","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T17:23:52","slug":"time-to-talk-day-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2018\/01\/31\/time-to-talk-day-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Talk Day 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mental health and university\u2026 recently I feel like I\u2019m discussing this problem every single day. As a student representative I communicate this issue to colleagues, staff members, university support systems, external panels etc. I also wrote about mental and PhD<\/a> \u2013 even if you\u2019re not a PhD student, have a read, it might apply to you as well.<\/p>\n

However, not everyone is talking about it. Some aren\u2019t aware that this issue is important, some don\u2019t care and many just are afraid or don\u2019t know how to offer support to someone who might struggle. Tomorrow is a great opportunity to give it a try – Time to Talk Day 2018<\/a>. It was initiated by Time to Change, a group of people who want to fight the mental health stigma. And on 1 February 2018<\/strong> we\u2019re especially encouraged to\u2026 talk<\/strong>. Just talk<\/a>. But how?<\/p>\n

Imagine that you are worried about someone around you. Maybe your friend started to avoid social situations? Maybe your classmate stopped attending classes? Maybe your sister doesn\u2019t smile anymore? Or your brother smiles too much? Maybe the boy who sits in the last row and whose name you don\u2019t even remember lost a lot of weight? These are all warning signs that shouldn\u2019t been ignored.<\/p>\n

You might think that it\u2019s none of your business. That if your approach this person, she or he will just ask you to leave them alone. That\u2019s certainly a possibility and you must be prepered for that. However, it IS your business. Surprisingly many people see these warning signs but decide to ignore them completely. Until someone finally reacts \u2013 or it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Ok, but what exactly should you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, make sure you\u2019re alone with this person. Don\u2019t start talking about difficult issues when there are other people around \u2013 it might be too embarassing. If you don\u2019t know the person, just find some excuse to stay alone with them for a moment; this shouldn\u2019t be too difficult, especially if you study together.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re both in a comfortable, quiet place, you might say something like: \u201cRecently I\u2019ve noticed that\u2026 and this worries me a bit. Of course I might be wrong and everything is ok, but I just wanted to make sure. I\u2019m here for you in case you\u2019d like to talk at some point.”<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it. If they don\u2019t want to talk, accept it. If they say you\u2019re wrong, that everything\u2019s ok, don\u2019t push them. In case you\u2019re still worried, mention it to your personal tutor or a person responsible for student welfare in your department.<\/p>\n

However, if they decide to open up, listen. It\u2019s ok not to understand<\/strong>, mental illnesses aren\u2019t easy to grasp \u2013 and nobody expects you to. Feel free to ask questions, but respect their privacy. If they don\u2019t want to answer, then don\u2019t pressure then. Also don\u2019t feel that you need to \u201csolve the problem\u201d. It\u2019s not your job! The most important thing is that the issue was acknowledged, they feel there\u2019s someone they can talk to, but now it\u2019s their turn \u2013 they need to reach out for professional help.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t save the world. You probably won\u2019t even save this particular person (if there\u2019s really something wrong, not everyone needs to be \u201csaved\u201d, please remember that!). However, you might really change their life.<\/p>\n

All sounds cheesy and unrealistic? Well, it happened to me. A long time ago I struggled myself and someone who I barely knew came and asked if everything was ok. I laughed their question off (so, again, be prepared that this might happen \u2013 it\u2019s not easy to admit that you have a problem), but they made me think. In the end I reached out for help, which saved my life.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to talk, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental health and university\u2026 recently I feel like I\u2019m discussing this problem every single day. As a student representative I communicate this issue to colleagues, staff members, university support systems, external panels etc. I also wrote about mental and PhD \u2013 even if you\u2019re not a PhD student, have a read, it might apply to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":3076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,191443,148187,163723,270137,12154,92291,127029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-life-advice","category-life-at-imperial","category-potentially-actually-useful-stuff","category-staying-healthy","category-stress","category-uni-life","category-university-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3074"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3078,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3074\/revisions\/3078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}